A review by sam_bizar_wilcox
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories, by Grace Paley

5.0

Paley's short stories--and these stories are short--are so wonderfully breezy and smart. There's a serious depth to her writing that permeates the collection. Certainly, there are stories that seem lighter -- "Gloomy Tune" stands out--but the overall project is mischievously sophisticated. It's the title intimation: enormous changes that last a minute. These stories are structured around clipped but shattering events, yet told with a cleansing breath of levity. I'm reminded of Cynthia Ozick for the way Paley authentically digs into her Jewish heritage, something that has always felt homey for me (Paley, Ozick, and I share an Ashkenazic background); I'm reminded, too, of Joy Williams, for the crisp lines by which Paley builds her featurettes. Like Williams, these stories feel quite post-modern, but unlike Williams, she doesn't seem to get enough credit for her writing (there's this NYB article from 2017: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/10/12/grace-paley-postmodern-mom/ but it's paywalled). A shame that is: I wish I'd discovered Paley sooner.